Search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation or SEO is all about
tuning your website pages so they naturally rank high in
search engine results for the specific search terms
(keywords) you are targeting. It is different to pay per
click advertising where you bid for positions in the search
listings and pay for each click. Simply submitting your
website to search engines and being added to their indexes
is not enough to guarantee you'll get a top listing in the
search results. This why search engine optimisation techniques
are used.
You need to ensure that when someone queries a
search engine your website gets returned on the first two
pages of search results. When this happens the
chances of users clicking through to your site are significantly
enhanced. This is because most users only look at
the first two pages of results - in most cases,
if they can find what they are looking for on the first
page they won't even look at the second page of results.
Adopting search engine optimisation techniques can turn
a failing site with low visibility into a site that attracts
high volumes of very targeted visitors.
A search on Google using the search phrase "search
engine promotion" returns over 900,000 competing web
pages in its results. Just because a site is submitted successfully
and indexed by a search engine does not mean it will rank
in the top results. The competition for first page
rankings in the key search engines and directories for popular
categories is very intense.
Each search engine and directory ranks results on perceived
relevancy to the search terms. This relevancy ranking is
determined according to complex indexing algorithms. Search
engine optimisation is all about identifying what these
complex scoring methodologies are and producing
web pages that are search engine friendly.
Web pages most likely to rank in a search engine's top
results are those that have been well tuned or optimised
to conform closely to the algorithm requirements for that
particular search engine. Hence the term, search engine
optimisation.
The problem is that these algorithms are specific to each
search engine, kept secret, increasingly complex and continually
being adjusted. Due to search engine volatility this makes
search engine optimisation challenging and an ongoing
task.
There are many companies that can help you with your SEO
strategy and we have produced a simple guide on how
to select a good SEO company. And beware of
any company that says it can guarantee you a top position
in the search results - no SEO agency can guarantee
top positions using search engine optimisation tactics!
